Monday, October 02, 2006

"La Pistola y el Corazon II"

In California last week, my dear friend John, his partner Chris and I visited the new, make that "reborn", de Young Museum in San Franscisco. As advertized, the architecture was fantastic. But for me all else paled in comparison to the headlining exhibit based on Cheech Marin's collection of Chicano art: "Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge".

I have always had a fascination with the color-rich celebration of death in Mexican culture and came close to buying a painting (yes, me, buy a real painting) with a Dia de los Muertos theme while in Cancun last year. In Marin's collection, one painting in particular blew me away: George Yepes' "La Pistola y el Corazon II". The "II" is in the title because this is the 2nd incarnation of the painting. The first, cover art for a 1998 Los Lobos CD, was destroyed in Madonna and Sean Pean's house fire. I found a small and completely unfair image of the new painting on the web and posted it here. (Click to get a slightly larger but still unjust view.)

If you ever run across a limited edition print of decent quality, BUY IT and I'll pay you back.

2 Comments:

I bought a preproduction limited edition of La Pistola y el Corazon back in the late 80's, run by Richard Duardo at Boyd/San Pedro downtown LA. Had to buy 10 which sold quickly and have had mine ever since.....think it cost me more to frame it than the actual print due to the bulk I bought, but it is the print of the one that burned, different and more intense than Cheech's....I love it.